Jim Daly of Kent, Conn. owns a 1951 Dodge Meadowbrook that his aunt bought new in 1951. He was gifted it in 1980 and put it into storage for 20 years. Now, though, it gets regular use. It's not flashy but it does have stories to tell...

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BY BUD WILKINSON | REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN

Jim Daly of Kent readily acknowledges that his drab gray 1951 Dodge Meadowbrook isn’t flashy, despite its wide white-wall tires and heavily-chromed front end. “The car didn’t sell because it was stylish. People bought it because they wanted something very dependable,” he said of the four-door sedan that he’s owned for 38 years.

“It’s a little old lady’s car,” said Daly, who didn’t have to buy it, though. It was a gift. “My Aunt Agnes bought it in New York City in 1951 and drove it and garaged it in Manhattan from 1951 ’til 1980. It went to Cape Cod every summer. It went to South Carolina a couple of times and back, and to Florida a couple of times and back. It wasn’t used on a regular basis. It wasn’t used for commuting. It was garaged. It only came out of the garage for weekend trips.”

In 1980, 29 years of ownership, Daly’s aunt bought another gray Dodge and handed him the keys to the Meadowbrook, which was a mid-level model that Dodge produced from 1949 to 1954. It had 86,000 miles on the odometer at the time. “This was a freebie. I’m the second owner. Same family,” he said.
The car went into storage on Long Island for two decades until Daly moved to Sherman in 2001, brought it with him and got it running again. It followed him when he moved to Kent in December. “It’s got a little rust here and there. It’s got a couple of dents. Scratches,” he said, reporting that it now has about 100,000 miles on the odometer.

Missing from the Meadowbrook’s right side is a rear-view mirror. “She never looked at any of her mirrors. She just went and hoped for the best,” he said of his aunt before recalling that one day she phoned to say that she’d been in an accident in the car. His father went to assess the damage.

“The rear left fender was a little pushed in and he said, ‘Wow, you’ve got some red paint on here. The other car was red?’ She said, ‘Well, the other vehicle wasn’t a car.’ He said, ‘What was the other vehicle?’ She said, ‘A fire truck.’”

There had been a fire on her street and she courteously went to move the Dodge. A fireman told her backing up wouldn’t be a problem, walked away and she then backed into the engine. “That’s the only accident of any significance that I know of,” said Daly, who drives the Meadowbrook frequently.
“It’s a very comfortable car. Smooth riding. Not flashy, but something an old guy like me takes a lot of pleasure in when I drive around in it,” he said.

Daly ‘s 1951 Dodge Meadowbrook lacks in excitement, it makes for in dependability. It’s powered by an L-head six cylinder engine. “Chrysler Corporation made millions of these engines over a period of years, so they didn’t have any bugs in them by the time this car was built. It was a well-proven, very reliable engine,” he said.

The transmission is a three-speed manual with the shifter lever on the column. “It’s a very forgiving clutch.
It’s called Fluid Drive. That was produced during a very narrow window period between stick shift and automatic transmissions. It’s almost impossible to stall it. It’s very forgiving. Perfect car for somebody to learn how to drive on, and she kind of learned as she drove,” he said, referring again to the aunt who gave him the car.

Knowing how to drive a manual transmission was helpful recently when the Daly made an impulse purchase. He was looking to find a place store the Meadowbrook for winter and stopped at Iron Horse Customs, the Royal Enfield motorcycle dealer in Kent. He spotted a 500cc model that got him drooling and took a test ride in a nearby school parking lot – having never ridden a motorcycle before. “I enjoyed it. I felt good, I felt like a kid. As Teddy Roosevelt once said, ‘This is my last chance to be a boy.’”

Daly took the state mandated Basic Rider Course and passed – one day shy of his 76th birthday. “My wife thought this is the beginning of the end; by next week he won’t even know his name. She felt that my brain was melting,” said Daly. He emphasized, “This is not a mid-life crisis thing. That would have been 30 years ago. This is a bucket list thing.”

Like many old cars, most motorcycles still have a clutch and manual shifters. “The fact that I knew how to drive stick, and Fluid Drive, helped immeasurably. Absolutely,” he said.

His new Royal Enfield hasn’t gotten much use yet, but the Dodge regularly hits the street. “It’s perfect for me to run errands with, and I feel that the more I use it, the better it is for the car. Lack of use is abuse,” he said.

“There were summers where I hardly used it at all, but as I’ve gotten older I realized this is something that’s part my family, part of who I am, and the more I use it, the better – for me and for it. And it’s a of fun to drive and it puts smiles on people’s faces and that makes me feel good.”